1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to voting systems, and, more particularly, to a system and method for synchronizing voter databases between a plurality of electronic poll books.
2. Description of Related Art
In many voting jurisdictions, electronic poll books have replaced paper poll books for tracking registered voters and voter activity. An electronic poll book allows a poll worker to access a database of all the voters registered to vote in a particular election. In general, when a voter enters a polling place, the poll worker uses the electronic poll book to search for the voter's record in the database, confirm that the voter has not yet voted in the election, and issue a voting credit to the voter. In many jurisdictions, the database resides locally on the electronic poll book, which are periodically synchronized with a central voter database.
However, a voting system relying on a central voter database presents some drawbacks. For example, if the central voter database or the communication link to the central voter database is unavailable, none of the electronic poll books can be synchronized—potentially allowing unauthorized voting to occur. In other words, the central voter database presents a single point of failure. Furthermore, the lag time that occurs at the central voter database between the receipt of information from a poll book and the transmission of such information to the remaining poll books may be substantial, leaving open the possibility that at any given time many of the poll books do not have up-to-date information in their databases.